Johnny Weismuller, "Sea Hunt," and the Lesson Learned

Fleeting fame faded, my obscure life resumes. It seems to start later and end earlier every day. The hours between become more monotonous. I begin to doubt my recall. The past is more dreamlike. Surely I'm lying. We could not have lived that way nor have been that happy doing so. There could never have been that much time.

But I wrote a lot of it back then, and it seems true.

I hope to impart some of that sense of wonder and texture to my friend's son. He loves the Cartoon Network and the Disney Channel as much as the next kid (and, unfortunately, I watch it with him to make certain I can speak to the issues I see there), but I have put other things in the mix. He has seen the entire Sherlock Holmes series starring Basil Rathbone. And he loved them. He has seen the Johnny Weismuller Tarzan series co-starring Maureen O'Sullivan and Johnny Sheffield. I took a chance and showed him the Thin Man series with William Powell and Myrna Loy. And he loves the Charlie Chan series, all thousand of them with both Warner Oland and Sidney Toler. We have begun to watch some old TV shows on Hulu. He got a kick out of the few episodes of "Sea Hunt" and "Flipper" he has seen.

Now listen, before you begin to complain, he can recite much poetry, too, and scored in the top one percent in the nation in math skills. He fishes and plays baseball and takes music lessons, sings in the choir, is in the Gifted Program at his school, etc. He is popular with his teachers and his classmates. He can name the plants and animals around us and put some into their correct Phylums and Classes.

In truth, I'm knocked out by how smart all the kids I meet seem. Brilliant, really. They have been exposed to more than I had been at their ages and already know so much. My own childhood seems to have been lived out in caves by comparison. I think we used to write with chalk on shovels.

OK. I've lost my way here and can't find a road back. Your assignment is to find a thread in this entry and write a conclusion. I'm still weak and dizzy from illness and going back to too much work too soon.

The kid got a new accordion. He outgrew the old one. You wouldn't believe how much accordions cost. Maybe that is why kids don't get accordion lessons any more. No, that is not why, I know. But this boy is getting good and soon will dazzle ears and send imaginations flying with the songs he will play. And as he gets older, every musical group will want to have the only accordion player in town join them.

He played the new one for me last night. I took a photo. Not a very good one, but I will make a good one this weekend. Trust me.